


Hermione Narcissa Zabini

by aphroditegirl



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Albus Dumbledore Lives, Bad Albus Dumbledore, Death Eaters, Dubious Morality, F/M, Good Death Eaters, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Hermione is a death eater, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, Minor Character Death, Not Epilogue Compliant, Pureblood Hermione Granger, Slytherin Hermione Granger, Snape didn't die, Voldemort Lives (Harry Potter), switched at birth - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 16:46:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 20,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28941684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aphroditegirl/pseuds/aphroditegirl
Summary: Hermione Granger isn't really a Granger... And now she's on the dark side?A coming of age story of how Hermione becomes her own person and escapes from the manipulation of Albus Dumbledore. Follow her life as she returns to Hogwarts for an eighth year, and becomes the woman she is destined to be, the leader of an empire.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 8
Kudos: 23





	1. Let the Games Begin

AN: In this story at the final battle Voldemort didn’t die, he merely disappeared again. Also, Snape and Dumbledore are still alive…. This story is being posted from FanFiction so it can get a bit racier.

Hermione Granger looked at the piece of paper in her hands. Adopted… Pureblood… Zabini? She was incredibly confused, The muggles she had been raised by weren’t her real parents…to be honest, it made sense, she looked nothing like either of the Grangers but never in her wildest dreams would she have thought she was a pureblood…  
“Mione! They’re here.” Her mu-Jean Granger called up the stairs. She was going to live with her family, the one she actually belonged to. She took one last look around the room she had called her own for as long as she could remember and sighed sadly. She would miss it here in the Granger’s home but she was sure she would at least enjoy living in the Zabini Manor. She shrunk her trunk to fit into her pocket and walk out of her room for the last time.  
When she saw her real mother, she was stunned, to say the least…Mary Zabini was gorgeous. Hermione now saw where her dark hair and curvy figure came from. She was roused from her thoughts by the tight feeling of a warm embrace. She looked up to see tears streaming from the older woman’s face. She smiled feeling a sense of completeness she hadn’t realized she was missing.  
“Hello,” Hermione whispered timidly (I know, But she’s meeting her birth parents you’d be nervous too!) Mary smiled warmly at her.  
“Hello, love. It truly is fantastic to see you again.” She turned to Jean, “Thank you so much for taking care of her all these years, I can’t imagine how hard it is to give her back now, if you want you can come to visit when you like…” Mary trailed off nervously, she was worried the other woman would change her mind and keep Hermione away. Jean smiled somberly and nodded holding back tears.  
“I think I’d like that very much.”

________________________*______________________*_________________________*______________  
Hermione was exhausted, after leaving her adoptive parent’s home in muggle London she and her mother had apparated to Diagon alley and shopped for hours. She had been less than amused at the outfits she had been pushed to buy but she could see the joy in her mother’s eyes and just went along with it. By the time she had even gotten to the manor, she thought she would pass out from exhaustion. But was informed she couldn’t, tonight there would be a formal dinner with a few other families to reintroduce the long lost Zabini girl.  
Hermione sighed, a formal dinner with a bunch of stuck up arseholes…. Great! Her ears perked up when she heard a certain platinum blonde Slytherin would be in attendance. Draco Malfoy, her secret boyfriend of nearly two years would be there. Suddenly she wasn’t tired at all and was enthused at the thought of getting dressed up for dinner. Eagerly she had a house-elf and her mother help her get dressed.  
She was shocked at what she saw in the mirror when everything was done. She wore a dark navy dress covered in small gems and beads; it had a sweetheart neckline with a fitted bodice ending in a sharp “v”. The skirt was just shy of knee length and was made of tulle and had white embroidery in the shape of roses at the hem. She wore minimal makeup just mascara, light lipstick, and a tad bit of blue eye shadow. She smiled at herself and slowly stumbled down the stairs.  
Mary shuddered at the sight of her daughter’s lack of knowledge on how to walk in heels and gently grabbed Hermione’s arm in an attempt to keep her from falling. She shook her head with a smile,  
“Darling, it seems you have a lot to learn.” She whispered gently into Hermione’s ear. Hermione simply nodded and blushed when she saw her boyfriend standing at the bottom of the stairs with a smirk.  
“How’s my girl?” he asked with a hug when she got to the bottom.  
“Grea-“  
“Oi! You hug Malfoy before your own brother!?!” a wild and slightly drunk Blaise Zabini cut her off. She hadn’t even known she had a brother, she should have known because of Blaise being in her year but she had never even considered it might be the same family.  
“Sorry” she whimpered. She felt bad for incidentally snubbing her brother. She walked over and gave him a stiff hug. He smelled like booze and she didn’t like it. “You’re drunk!” she whisper-yelled.  
“And?” He asked obnoxiously. She could already tell that life in the manor was going to be very different from life with the Grangers…

________________________*______________________*_________________________*______________  
After dinner, the adults had retired to the drawing-room for cigars and talk of the upcoming return of the dark lord. The children had been banished to the upstairs so they wouldn’t hear anything and Hermione and Draco had taken this chance to be alone, as Blaise had passed out after dinner.  
“Can they know now?” she asked as they sat on the loveseat in her room.  
“I suppose they can,” Draco smirked. And before she knew it his lips and hers were moving in harmony, she had missed this over the summer, being near him, kissing him… they were having quite a nice make-out session when they were interrupted by the clearing of a throat. Their heads turned in unison to see three bewildered parents staring at them.  
“Draco,” Lucius growled, “is there something you would like to tell us?”  
“Ummm, Hermione and I are dating,” he blurted out quickly.  
“And you are in her room why?” Mary asked dangerously.  
“We were talking and then…” Hermione squeaked.  
Mary nodded slightly miffed. She might as well tell them if they already loved each other, and from the way they looked at each other, she could tell they did. She turned to Lucius and mouthed her question to him, Should we tell them? He nodded with pride.  
“Well since you’ll find out sooner or later, and we don’t have to push you together… I was going to announce this on Hermione’s birthday but, I guess now is the right time…I should tell you that you two are betrothed to marry about a month after graduation. “ She stuttered. Hermione’s face lit up. She was going to marry the love of her life, even if it was a bit early in life. She kissed Draco deeply before running to hug her mother and then a bewildered Lucius and Narcissa. The adults were pleasantly surprised, normally children did no react well to news of a betrothal. They all smiled at each other knowingly, this marriage would be a happy one.  
________________________*______________________*_________________________*______________  
Hermione groaned as light flooded into her bedroom. She opened her eyes to see three house elves scurrying around the room. As she sat up the elves stopped what they were doing to bow and then quickly apparated out. Hermione sighed and got out of bed checking the clock, it was 8’o clock in the morning. After how late she had stayed up, it was way too early to be awake. She had sneaked out with Draco to go to a muggle club and they had danced all night only coming home when Hermione was too drunk to walk. No wonder her head hurt so badly, she had lost count at five shots of tequila and two bloody Maries. She heard the telltale pop of apparition and soon heard the scared voice of her favorite house-elf Rainbow.  
“Mistress, Rainbow thought you might like some of this. It should at least help with your headache if nothing else.” The house-elf set a bottle of anti-hangover potion on the bedside table.  
“Thanks, Rainbow.” Hermione whimpered as her head whined at the use of sound. She quickly gulped down the potion and she immediately felt better. She put her slippers on and tapped the cowering elf on the head in thanks. And walked down to breakfast, the table was laden with more presents than she had gotten in her entire life. Before anyone could start singing she spoke up. “No singing. I have a headache and I’m not in the mood.” Mary huffed and Blaise smirked knowingly.  
 **Hung-over sis?** Hermione gasped had Blaise just talked to her telepathically?  
 **Yes. Yes, I did! Impressive right?** His voice rang out with a hit of plain old obnoxiousness.  
 **Shut up, Blaise. And yes I am, very leave me alone.** She felt sort of snarkish. Blaise grinned at her and tilted his head.  
“What no birthday hug for your twin brother?” He whined.  
“Twins? Oh, happy birthday Blaise. Why hasn’t anyone said anything about this?” Now she was hung-over and angry… No one thought it might be a good plan to tell her Blaise was her twin? That just didn’t fly. Hermione stormed back up the staircase and locked the door.  
“Mione? Let me in. Please…I thought you and Blaise would get to talking and you would figure it out. I didn’t mean to upset you!” Mary yelled through the door. Hermione thought about opening the door but she didn’t really see the point, sure she had lived under a different surname for nearly seventeen years and had only been living in the house for a week BUT, having a twin is a pretty big bomb not to drop! She trudged up to the door and opened it. She faked a smile for Mary and gave a half-hearted hug. “Time to start getting ready for your party,” Mary winced “The stylists will be here any minute now.”  
“Okay mum, only if I have to.” Hermione groaned dressing up and doing makeup was the bane of her existence and in the past week alone she had done enough to serve her an entire lifetime. For five hours Hermione sat passively as she was covered in gunk, her hair was pulled, and her face lost at least a layer of skin (at least it felt like it). Weren’t these torturers here to make her look stunning? When they finally left her to get dressed she was afraid to look in the mirror, did she even have a face anymore? But when she did she was surprised, to say the least. Amazingly there was still a face to look at and the change was significant. Her normally bushy eyebrows had been tamed into quaint brown lines on her forehead, and her complexion looked flawless. There were faint traces of makeup but nothing too heavy.  
Hermione turned to the dress rack where a solitary hanger held a white garment bag. To be honest she was scared shitless, what devilish dress had her mother hidden in that big white bag? When she unzipped the bag she was dumbfounded and unsure if she was going to be able to get into the dress on her own. The green silk bodice had a silver snake embroidered onto it and the skirt was layers of grey and green tulle, it was the epitome of a Slytherin ball gown. She shook her head, of course, it was, what was she expecting red and gold?  
“Mum! I might need a little help…The dress has a little more volume than I was expecting.” Before she could take another breath her mother had popped into the room eager to help her.  
“Arms up.” Mary squealed. She quickly levitated the dress over Hermione’s head and dropped onto her petite frame. As the dress hit Hermione’s hips it began to lace itself. “Come on love, we’ve got a party to attend.” Mary smiled lovingly before leading her daughter to the top of the staircase and released her into Draco Malfoy’s loving arms.  
Before they were even down the stairs the amount of people present was obvious and unnerving. Most of the people in this room had hated her on principle for the majority of her life one week didn’t, in her mind, change much. She plastered the fake smile she had perfected over the past week and continued into the sea of her former enemies. After her fourth glass of champagne, Hermione was starting to have fun, the music had turned into pop and the adults were sitting around being boring, leaving the dance floor in the ballroom to the teenagers. She and Draco were dancing I a way that had her mother in a tizzy, Mary was not pleased to see Hermione grinding on a boy, even if that boy was her fiancé. She decided that it would be a good time to call it quits on the party and gently started to dismiss the party guests.  
When everyone was finally gone she found Hermione passed out on a lounge chair with a bottle of fire whiskey in her hand. What was wrong with these children? Was life as a pureblood so terrible that they had to get drunk off their asses any chance they got?


	2. We Gotta Get Back to Hogwarts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coming back to school doesn't go quite as planned. Did she really expect it to be easy?

2 ½ months later

Hermione Zabini was nervous as she boarded the train for Hogwarts. Even with Draco’s arm wrapped securely around her waist the looks she was getting from her fellow Gryffindors were disconcerting. Even Ginny her best friend looked angry, and to make it worse Rita Skeeter had appeared at platform 9 ¾ to harass her.

“Hermione Granger!” she yelled over the noise of the bustling platform. Hermione ground her teeth in frustration and sighed.

“It’s not Granger, you thick Slag!” she yelled. The platform silenced. “It’s Zabini, soon to be Malfoy.” She smiled falsely. And then rushed onto the train. Rita huffed angrily and then left the station, embarrassed and hurt. On the train, many Slytherins greeted Hermione as if she was royalty. People who had hated her for her entire life were going out of their ways to make her comfortable. But in truth, it just made her even more uncomfortable. She snuggled up to Draco’s chest and drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

________________________*______________________*_________________________*______________

Draco gently nudged Hermione awake, they would arrive at Hogwarts soon and she needed to change into her uniform. She blinked sleepily and smiled up at him with a big yawn.

“What is it love?” She asked quietly.

“We’re almost there, you need to change into your robes…” she sighed and slowly sat up demanding he avert his eyes because she didn’t want to go all the way to the bathroom just to change. As she changed she became aware of the pair of eyes transfixed by her body.

“Draco!” she lightly hit his arm. “I told you not to look!”

“But with a beauty like you, how could I resist?” he asked punctuating his sentence with a deep kiss on the lips. He slowly worked his way down her neck leaving love bites on the way down before pulling her even closer. Their moment was interrupted by the announcement that the train would arrive at the station in approximately ten minutes. Draco helped Hermione into her uniform and smirked at her. When the train arrived at the station they quickly departed for the castle.

The speech that Dumbledore gave at the sorting feast was the same as always and sorting was quick and uneventful. After the feast, Dumbledore said he had one last announcement.

“As some of you may know, one of our students was not, for the past six years, who we thought she was. In fact, her true heritage is one completely different from the one we thought she had, as it is I thought it would perhaps be a good idea to sort her again, just to see if anything has changed.” His voice boomed throughout the hall and Hermione stopped breathing. “Hermione Zabini will you please come to the front of the great hall.” Hermione was completely frozen, she really didn’t want to go up but, Draco nudged her encouragingly and even grabbed her hand to walk with her. They walked down the aisle between the tables with only the sound of their footsteps to accompany them, there was no murmur, no giggling, not even a sneeze. Which only made the moment more tense. At the front of the room McGonagall held the sorting hat with a slight frown, she liked Hermione and did not want to lose her as a part of Gryffindor house. As the hat touched her head it began to talk.

“It seems things have changed Ms. Gran-Zabini. Quite interesting, Brave like a Gryffindor but, sly and cunning like a Slytherin." It got quiet for a moment. ”SLYTHERIN!” It yelled as McGonagall lifted the tattered hat off of the young witch’s head. Draco beamed at his beloved and led her back to the table where nearly everyone was murmuring amongst themselves. Hermione was glad that the farce of a resorting was over. It was embarrassing enough to be the center of attention for a second, now until something more fascinating than the news that the princess of Gryffindor had switched sides (i.e nothing) she would be the talk of the school AND the wizarding world. She sighed, at least she had Draco to help her deal with people…Not that she needed help, it was nice to know she didn’t have to face a world full of newfound enemies on her own.

________________________*______________________*_________________________*______________

Harry and Ron sat flabbergasted as they reflected on the day. They had watched Malfoy hold onto Hermione possessively. How could she have let that ferret touch her? And then she had been sorted into Slytherin…What in the bloody hell had happened over the summer? Ron had to ask her, even if she had turned him down he still loved her and would stop at nothing to win her over. As he walked down the corridor Ron started to regret his choice to seek out Hermione, he didn’t like to be in the same building as her grubby death eater boyfriend, much less the same room. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he bumped into someone.

“You filthy blood traitor. Get the fuck away from me.” He heard none other than the witch he was looking for scream at him. Now he was just pissed, the little bitch would call him a blood traitor when she hadn’t even known she was a pureblood for a whole fucking year? Before he could stop himself he punching her square in the jaw. She flinched in pain before thoroughly whooping his pompous ass. She brushed her robes off and walked away “Filthy blood traitor.” She huffed.

________________________*______________________*_________________________*______________

Draco gasped when Hermione walked into the Slytherin common room. She had a bruise forming on the left side of her jaw and her knuckles were bruised and torn. The old Hermione would have never thought to get in a fight, but then again, the old Hermione didn’t exist.

“Love, what happened?”

“Ronald Weasley bumped into me in the hall and then had the audacity to punch me!” Hermione yelled furiously. Punctuating her sentence by pointing at her jaw.

“And as for your knuckles?” Draco smirked.

“He hit me first!” she whined. Draco shook his head and tutted.

“Hermione Zabini what are we going to do with you?” Hermione was about to kiss him when Blaise walked into the common room.

“Weaslette wants to see you, said something about the weasel and a fistfight. Do you know what she’s tal-“ Blaise quieted when Hermione turned around and held up her hands defensively.

“He hit me first.” She smirked as she walked out of the common room to deal with the little read head whom she had called a friend for many years. She wouldn’t be caught dead with the Weasley girl now, as a Zabini (and a Malfoy she reminded herself) she was expected to be a valiant follower of Voldemort. The ideology he was toting was actually much more reasonable than it was made out to be. The lies the order had been spewing were complete and utter nonsense and if Ginny or any other witch or wizard wanted to follow the order’s nonsense they didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as she did, much less be her friend. She giggled at the thought of how she had changed over the summer. She had gone from an all-loving bookworm to a prejudiced bitch. She smirked at Ginny when they came face-to-face.

“What do you want Ginny?” she spat with a fake smile plastered on her face. “

You BITCH! You beat up my brother and left him in the hall to bleed… Don’t you know he loves you? And what’s with the high and mighty Pureblood act…You haven’t known you were a pureblood your entire life and once you do it’s a huge fucking deal!?!?!” Ginny was red as a beet. Hermione smirked, she couldn’t stand Ginny’s attitude. She silently petrified Ginny and dragged her into the common room her eyes gleaming. Draco stared at her questioningly.

“Yes love?” she asked as if she hadn’t just dragged a body into the common room. Draco shook his head and giggled.

“What’d she do? More importantly, do we need to bury a body tonight?” Hermione shook her head with a grin plastered on her face.

“We’re gonna give the dark lord a coming back present.”


	3. Who's Your Daddy?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Big news for our favorite Slytherin!

An: In this story the Voldemort doesn’t want to obliterate muggles nor does he think muggleborns inferior. He just wants a complete separation of the two worlds.

“Draco dear do, explain this whole mission to separate worlds again…I’m still not sure I really get it…and why did Harry have to die to fulfill the goal?” Hermione asked confusedly. Even after all this time things weren’t quite clicking in her brain. She understood that by Voldemort’s standards Arthur Weasley’s job wouldn’t exist but she didn’t really understand the motive behind this so-called separation.

“The way the dark lord sees it, Muggles poison the wizarding community and taint the purity of our blood, and dilute our magic. He doesn’t see a problem with muggleborns as your once precious order would have you believe but, he doesn’t approve of them or half-bloods. He doesn’t think it's right love.” Draco sighed. “Even if he’s a half-blood…”

________________________*______________________*_________________________*______________

As Hermione and Blaise entered the manor there was an aura unlike any they had ever experienced in the house. It was cold and the entire house seemed palpably tense and dark. “

Mum? What in the bloody-“ Hermione started.

“Oh, hush would you!” Blaise elbowed her and scowled. She glared at him and was about to give him hell for cutting her off when Mary meekly walked down the stairs. She grimaced at her children and tried to look like everything was perfectly normal. “

Go up to your rooms and change into something nice. Quietly.” They both ran upstairs careful to make as little noise as possible… Hermione wasn’t sure what was going on but from the look on her mother’s face, it was a delicate situation.

Coming into the dining room Hermione was incredibly frightened, sitting at her table were Voldemort and the witch who had tortured her over the sword of Gryffindor, Bellatrix Lestrange.

“Hermione, How lovely to see you.” Bellatrix cackled. Her crooked smile sending shivers down Hermione’s spine. Voldemort waved to the seat to his left directly across from Bellatrix. Blaise nearly had to shove Hermione into her seat. Voldemort’s expression almost looked happy and it just made the room grow colder, a smile from the nose less dark lord was just scary as fuck.

 **What the hell is this shit?** She asked Blaise.

 **What does it look like stupid?** He growled.

**Why is he here?**

**Wants to tell you something that I know and you don’t…**

**What?**

**You know I can hear you right?** The gravely voice of Voldemort rang out in both of the children’s heads. It was unnerving to have someone who wasn’t her brother in her head. Blaise's smug look and chuckle infuriated her to another level.

“Apparently that prat did…” Hermione looked at Blaise pointedly.

“What do you want to tell me?” Bellatrix stiffened in her seat.

“Watch your mouth or he might let me kill you this time!” Voldemort’s cold hand grabbed Bellatrix’s slim wrist and slammed it to the table making everyone in the room jump. He glowered at her and shook his head with a smirk.

“No one is going to lay a hand on her Bella.” The look of lust in his eyes had Hermione gagging. “Not a finger on MY daughter.” Bellatrix’s jaw dropped open in tandem with Hermione’s. Blaise sat there grinning like a Cheshire cat, Hermione fixed that with a smack on the arm.

“Oh stop it! You are a grown woman, I will not have my daughter reverting to the behavior of a four-year-old.” An angry-looking Voldemort screeched before promptly leaving the room. Bellatrix quickly followed leaving a stunned Hermione and a bored Blaise to sit silently in the dining room.

“You couldn’t have told me the reason that we quote-unquote, didn’t a have a dad was because it was VOLDEMORT?”

“Actually no…I couldn’t. Chill the fuck out.” He looked at his hyperventilating twin before calling for one of the house-elves, “Rainbow, bring us a bottle of fire whiskey.” Rainbow came back with the bottle and two shot glasses. Blaise was about to pour when Hermione grabbed the bottle out of his hand and took a swig. Spluttering she laughed.

“Hermione fucking Riddle, who’d a thunk it?” Blaise watched in amazement as in the next minute she managed to drain the whole bottle. “Rainbow bring me-“ Blaise cut in,

“She’s fine Rainbow, don’t worry about it.” He smiled at her trying to be warm. “ Mione I think we should get you upstairs before that makes it to your head…” He grabbed her and tried unfruitfully to coax his sister up the stairs. He sighed and decided to leave her to her own devices, he didn’t have the energy to play babysitter to his sister.

________________________*______________________*_________________________*______________

The first thing Hermione noticed upon waking was that she was not in her bed, the second was a throbbing headache coupled with the urge to vomit. She sat up and realized she was in a heap at the bottom of the main staircase. How she had gotten to this exact spot, she hadn’t the slightest, in fact, she didn’t have the foggiest as to what had happened the night before. She heard footsteps and turned to see her obnoxious brother happily skipping down the steps.

“What in the hell happened last night? I feel like I put my brain through a meat grinder and then put it back in my skull.”

“Ought to.” Blaise smirked, “You drank a full bottle of fire whiskey in the span of a minute.” He chuckled at her bewildered grimace.

“What in merlin’s beard made me do that?” Hermione smirked, “What is our dad Voldemort Lord of the noseless?” she joked. Blaise’s face straightened.

“Yes.” Voldemort’s voice responded. “Oh, and don’t call me that. I might just let you call me Father BUT, if I ever hear you make jokes like that again I won’t hesitate to crucio your ass to death. Daughter or not.” He said with near glee at the prospect of torture. Hermione looked at Blaise like a dear in the headlights.

“What the fuck am I on Blaise?”

“Other than that hangover you have, you aren’t in the slightest inebriated.” She glowered at him. If this was a joke she was going to kill Blaise and whoever the buffoon in the costume was with her bare hands. She began to laugh hysterically.

“Super funny guys. Draco if you’re trying to fuck with my head stop it! By the way nice job with the costume…Very realistic.” Blaise was dumbfounded, this of all reactions was not what he had expected. He stared straight into her eyes while trying to explain that as funny of a joke this would have been, it was the truth and that she really was related to everyone’s “favorite” dark wizard.

________________________*______________________*_________________________*______________

After three weeks of Christmas break that had basically turned her house into death eater headquarters, Hermione was more than happy to return to school. Even if she agreed with the mission, she wasn’t sure she approved of the method, not to mention the fact that most of the death eaters she knew intimidated her to no end. The only bright side was that she had gotten to see a whole lot of Draco.

The attempt to bait the order with Ginny had failed miserably. Either no one cared about Ginny or they decided that being kidnapped by death eaters wasn’t that big of a deal. After a bit of obliviating Hermione had managed to re-befriend the redhead. The two had spent most of the break-in Hermione’s room planning what they had deemed the “Wedding of the Millennium”. The colors would of course be emerald green, silver, and (after some fighting) gold. The ring Hermione had received held a single white heart cut diamond while the band had an emerald snake wrapped around it.

To say that the people on the platform were shocked to see Ginny Weasley walking with a pack of Slytherins and their parents would be an understatement. Molly had tried to call Ginny over only to receive a thorough tongue lashing for her failure to rescue her only daughter from a situation that she had perceived to be dangerous. The Weasley clan and Harry had been stunned but, everyone else on the platform was scared shitless, if the death eaters could get their hooks into Hermione Granger AND one of the Weasleys there was trouble brewing. The pack of students made their way through the crowd pompously, they knew they had scared people, and that was exactly the point of the group walking together…Instilling fear in the public.


	4. Breaking Up is Hard to Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry and Ron are not so fond of the changes their ex-girlfriends are going through.

Disclaimer: As much as I wish I owned Harry Potter and the world he lives in, I’m not JK Rowling and therefore I don’t. She gets the credit for anything you recognize, only the plot belongs to me. 

When the pack of Slytherins and Ginny walked into the great hall together everyone went silent. Harry and Ron stood angrily, why was Ginny with those filthy snakes? Ginny smiled at Ron and Harry and waved cheekily before sitting primly at the table with her newfound friends. At this everyone’s eyes practically flew out of their sockets, was the youngest Weasley under the imperious? The teachers glanced warily at the group of students sitting at the head of the Slytherin table. Albus Dumbledore cleared his throat loudly, momentarily drawing everyone’s attention from the odd group of mostly Slytherins.

“Welcome back all! As it is our first night back from Christmas I expect everyone to dine at their house tables.” He glanced pointedly at Ginny. “You all know the rules and eighth years, it has come to my attention that the activities being participated in, while legal, aren’t necessarily appropriate for school. Remember, Hogwarts has allowed you to return to make up for your lack of schooling last year. We will not hesitate to expel trouble makers.” He looked at Hermione and her new posse and sighed. “Tuck in!” he clapped and returned to his seat as food appeared on the tables.

“Old coot.” Hermione muttered under her breath, she was frustrated with the entire school right now. It wasn’t like her being in Slytherin should be news anymore… A semester and a break along with rumors of her father’s return should have easily eclipsed a change in allegiances. Draco smirked at her.

“Which one?” she stared at him for a second before he turned to look at the professors who all looked like they had just swallowed lemons. McGonagall was following something across the back of the room and muttering to herself and Snape was smirking victoriously. Hermione followed McGonagall’s gaze to see none other than Harry-freaking-Potter, the-boy-who-just-wouldn’t-die slowly approaching the table. She smiled viciously at him and waited. He looked at her fearfully, even when they had been friends, he had been afraid of her bad side. He figured with all the reading she did she had to know way too many ways to maim or seriously injure him. Harry cleared his throat nervously.

“Hey ‘Mione-“

“You haven’t talked to me in over six months, and you waltz over to me to start a conversation the Order has put you up to with ‘Hey ‘Mione’?” Hermione snorted and then shook her head, “Continue.” She rolled her eyes and began to tap her fingers impatiently.

“Well, you see, umm… Ron and I were wondering when, and please don’t kill me for asking, but when are you going to come to your senses and come back to where you belong?” He looked up to see the entirety of Slytherin house laughing silently. “We miss you, I miss you. We’re nothing without our favorite know-it-all!” He leaned down close to her ear and whispered, “I think even Snape misses you!” At this Hermione could no longer contain herself.

“I saw Severus Snape every day of break, if anything he’s sick of me! And HARRY JAMES POTTER, I would have to be under the Imperius curse to ever, EVER come back to you and your band of liars.” She smiled evilly as Harry slowly backed away from her. “AND DON’T YOU EVER QUESTION MY REASONING AGAIN!” She whispered, “I know more creative ways to kill you than just a simple Avada.” Harry nodded quietly before running back to the Gryffindor table with his tail between his legs. Draco smiled at his Fiancé, she could be a scary motherfucker when she was angry… he definitely liked this side of her. Hermione shook her head. Who did you have to kill to eat a quiet dinner around this dump?

________________________*______________________*_________________________*______________

Madam Pomfrey’s eyes widened as Hermione walked into the hospital wing. The 17-year-old looked very happy with herself despite the trickle of blood coming out of her nose and the multiple bruises that were blooming on her face. Behind her, a furious Harry Potter was dragging a nearly unconscious Ronald Weasley. Poppy’s frown deepened, what in the hell were these kids getting into? Wordlessly she levitated Ron onto one of the empty beds to examine him. Her spells found 6 broken ribs and 8 broken knuckles, and a once over of the boy's exposed skin made her cringe. She cast a quick spell for the bruising and walked over to where Hermione was sitting primly on the other side. 2 broken knuckles a split lip and severe bruising were all the girl had sustained in what Poppy could only guess was a very violent scuffle.

After giving Ron some potion to fix his broken bones Poppy called Albus, Minerva, and Severus. Fist fighting was not acceptable but, it was up to heads of houses and the headmaster to deal with the students involved. Unfortunately, by the time they had all arrived, most of Slytherin house had made a protective bubble around Hermione, and Ron’s friends had huddled together near him, this was not going to be an easy evening. McGonagall and Snape walked over to their respective students and began to give two very different lectures to the groups.

“You all know very well that any sort of fighting amongst students is strictly prohibited,” McGonagall started.

“Hermione, your father,” he gave her a stern look, “would not like the looks of you right now. Must you really bring yourself down to the level of fist fighting, you are at least proficient with your wand and you have plenty of boys around to do your brawling for you!” He actually looked worried about her and at this, she smiled.

“I broke six of his ribs and came out with a couple of bruises and a scratch professor. I can duel but it is much more satisfying to hear ribs crack under your own knuckles,” She smiled wickedly and a few of those nearest her took a step away. Snape scowled and without another word turned on his heel and left.

“What even happened?” Minerva sighed, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Ron cleared his throat and everyone turned their heads to him.

“ I said something to the effect of ‘Malfoy has our ‘Mione under the Imperius.’ And apparently, she has an issue with being called our ‘Mione by Harry or I and she feels some sort of offense at my accusation of Malfoy…Still...” Minerva tilted her head in confusion until she remembered the argument at the welcome back feast. She smiled tightly before silently walking away, could the ‘Golden Trio’ stop get into trouble? Because at this rate, they were all going to find a way to get expelled before they could graduate, one would think after going through a war they would have grown out of this sort of behavior…


	5. Initiation Night-Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The newest class of death eaters joins learns that they will be joining the ranks.

Two weeks after the fight Hermione received a letter from an unfamiliar owl at dinner. It had only three words on it, “ _Come home tonight”_. She didn’t recognize the handwriting but figured it probably had something to do with her father and his “army of flying monkeys”. She wasn’t sure what was going to happen but, she had a feeling that she would be forced to interact with them.

When she, Draco, and all the other junior death eaters walked down to the dungeons they all changed into dark robes and then proceeded to sneak off of the campus to apparate to Zabini Manor. Taking a deep breath Hermione straightened her shoulders and donned her best nonchalant smile, she was playing the big leagues now, and goddamnit if she didn’t play the best that she could. She wrapped her arm around Draco’s waist and together they walked into the swarming hive of dark activity that was Zabini Manor.

The first thing the group heard when they opened the door was Bellatrix’s evil cackle followed by the strangled screams of what sounded like a woman. They all continued seemingly unfazed by this and continued in a pack to the dining room. The door to the dining room was opened by a grimy house elf. All noise ceased at the creak of the hinges. The entire table looked expectantly at the group of children standing hesitantly at the door.

Voldemort smirked at his daughter and motioned the children into the cavernous room. If looks could kill, Hermione should have been dead. Bellatrix was staring at her, hands clenched into fists and a sneer on her face. It wasn’t the snarl obviously caught in her throat that was scary though, it was the look in her eyes that Hermione knew all too well meant Bellatrix wanted her dead. Hermione smiled cheekily at her enemy and continued to walk halting when her father waved her over to sit on his left. She froze, knowing that sitting so near to him would only stoke Bella’s ire before inclining her head to him in acknowledgment and gracefully seating herself.

“My dearest followers,” Voldemort started quietly, the sound of his voice instantly killing any other sounds in the room. He continued evenly, “Some of you may recognize the witch to my left,” he smiled viciously at Bellatrix, “This is my daughter. You will treat her with the utmost respect and dignity whenever you encounter her.” He looked pointedly at each of the people in the room spending an especially long time staring at Bellatrix. There were few death eaters who had known about the Dark lord’s affair with Mary Zabini, the death eaters with children knew about Hermione being Blaise’s twin but, had not known who the twins’ father was.

For many it was a shock to know that the girl they had sneered at even over the summer was the daughter of their master, this discovery along with the way she seemed to be handling Bellatrix earned her respect in the eyes of most of the people in the room. The dark lord looked pleased with the resulting silence and rumination of his announcement and the corners of his mouth turned up just slightly, to those who did not look carefully, he still looked as stoic and disinterested as usual. He snapped and the same grubby elf that had led the children in appeared almost instantly.

“Yes, master?” The elf asked expectantly.

“You have yet to bring our new guests refreshments.” He sounded nonchalant but the elf knew his master was displeased.

“Dandy be sorry master. She be very sorry and soon as she brings young mistress and friends drinks she be ironing her ears.” The elf trembled in fear and popped back into the kitchen to retrieve glasses for the new arrivals. Voldemort sneered at the empty space where the elf had been and turned back to the table.

“Filthy creatures.” He muttered to himself. He raised his voice for the room to hear. “You may wonder why I have not only summoned you but, have also summoned your children. The answer is simple: they are ready to be initiated.” The people at the table started to mutter quietly to each other, normally initiations were planned months in advance and everyone except the initiates knew what was going to happen. This would be the first initiation that did not follow the protocol but, to be honest they weren’t sure anything would follow the same protocol as before the dark lord vanished he had changed in his time away… He was practically a different person.


	6. Initiation Night-Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new death eaters are initiated and Hermione is exhausted.

When Hermione woke up, she wasn’t sure where she was. All she knew was that it was cold and her arm was killing her. She looked around anxiously, quickly identifying that she was in the dungeons of the manor and she was covered in blood. She looked for wounds on her body but found none, the blood had to be someone else’s. Turned around and saw the group of 30 or so death eaters (those of them that were new were also covered in blood) standing quietly in a blob as if they had been watching something terrible happen. She searched the crowd for Draco, he looked concerned and when she found her father’s eyes she felt shame; He looked pissed. Before she got a chance to wonder what the hell she had done to incite his wrath she realized he wasn’t staring at her in anger. He was staring at a guilty-looking Bellatrix Lestrange. When Draco saw she was awake he rushed forward to help her up. He stared at his aunt with disgust and dragged Hermione away from her as quickly as he could.

“I’m sooo sorry, did I hurt the itty bitty mudblood?” Bella asked in an acidic but childish tone. Voldemort’s frown deepened. He tilted his head slowly and raised his wand.

“What did you call my daughter?” his voice was stone cold and monotone. The temperature in the room decreased by ten degrees. When Bellatrix didn’t respond he raised his voice and asked again. “What. Did. You. Call. My. Daughter?” He had lost his air of calm; anyone with eyes could see the rage plastered on his face. Everyone knew that no matter how fond the dark lord had once been of the crazy black-haired witch, she would die before the night was up and she would not enjoy her death one bit. Bellatrix began to back away fearfully; even she knew she wouldn’t make it out of the manor. The deadly calm that had re-consumed Voldemort gave everyone in the room a chill; especially the frizzy-haired, wide-eyed witch that had both literally and metaphorically backed herself into a corner. 

“LEAVE!” Voldemort’s cold, angry voice resounded off of the stone walls of the dungeons. The now more fearful group of death eaters quietly and quickly moved in unison towards the door to the upper levels of Zabini Manor. The group shook as they heard the blood-curdling screams of the end of Bellatrix Lestrange’s life, the walls and floors of the manor shaking.

*****************

“Dray, What did that crazy bitch do to me?” Hermione asked wearily. She felt as if she had been hit by a bus and then sent through a meat grinder. Draco shook his head as he fought the flush of anger he felt rising in his cheeks. He grumbled something unintelligible before clearing his throat.

“Where do you want me to start? With the part where she tried to kill you or the part where she sent you flying into a wall with so much force you almost broke your neck? When neither of those ‘Brilliant’ ideas worked she tried to turn you inside out.” Draco’s eyes were blazing and his voice had gotten loud enough that one of the house-elves had backed into a corner and was on the verge of tears. Even Hermione was tense, she had backed as far away from the enraged blonde as their tangled hands would allow.

******************

Hermione examined her forearm with complete amazement. She had expected receiving the mark would be considerably more painful. The dull ache she felt seemed to be nothing compared to what Draco had seemed to experience when he had received his. Another quite perplexing facet of her new “tattoo” was the color; instead of the regular black, it was green. The snake seemed more active than the ones present on other death eaters’ arms. 

“Draco?” Draco’s head whipped around in surprise. The sudden break in the silence had startled him. “What in the hell is going on with my arm?” Her voice cracked making her sound even more distressed than she was. Grey eyes shot to her forearm and then widened in surprise.

“Not really sure love.” His head was cocked in confusion, his lips pursed in consternation. “Probably nothing. If you’re worried we can-” She cut him off.

“I’m fine.” She smiled in the way a tired and frustrated mother would, tight-lipped and exhausted. “Can we just go to bed? I’m tired.” Draco smiled at her and took her hand, leading her from the common room and into her own room. With a chaste kiss to her forehead, Draco left his beloved for the night.


	7. I Need a Doctor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermione didn't come out of her match with Bellatrix quite as unscathed as she thought.

Hermione shot out of bed, she was covered in sweat and her arm felt like it was burning off. She flicked on the light in her dormitory and stared at it; despite her pain what she saw amused her. The snake on her arm was ‘dancing’ which would have been quite funny if every move it made didn’t leave her in agony. 

After pulling on her dressing gown she padded out the door and headed towards Draco’s room. She levitated herself up the steps and opened the door as quietly as she could. With the dim light from her wand, she could see him sleeping peacefully in his dark silky pajamas. 

“Draco,” she whispered. He stirred but remained asleep. 

“Draaaco,” this time her voice was loud enough to wake him. He grabbed for his wand instinctively. When he saw her he was fully awake, Hermione was pale to the point she was nearly grey, her eyes had large black bags under them and her arm (apart from the dancing snake) was an angry red. Before Draco had a chance to ask any questions, Hermione hit the floor with a loud thud.

Draco lifted her gently and headed for the quarters of none other than Severus Snape. When he finally opened the door, Slytherin’s head of house looked ready to blow a gasket. When he saw who was at his door, his demeanor changed slightly, he no longer looked furious but he still looked like one wrong move could result in death.

“Professor, she came and woke me up but then she passed out. Look at her arm.” Draco was panting both from exertion and fear. Snape led the way into his quarters and gestured for Draco to lay Hermione down on the settee. He lit the room and began to cast diagnostic charms on her eerily still figure. He frowned and cast glamour over her dark mark before levitating her and beginning to leave the room.

“Pomfrey will need to see her, seems Lestrange did a better job than I thought. Go back to bed, I’ll watch her.” Draco opened his mouth to protest but then thought better of doing so, Snape was already in a bad mood; there was no need to make it worse. He trudged back to the boys' dormitory and watched as the woman he loved was taken to the hospital wing.

*****************

“Poppy, Ms. Zabini seems to be quite ill. Mr. Malfoy brought her to me in quite a state of shock, seems she passed out when she came to find him.” Madam Pomfrey’s eyes flashed with suspicion before leading Snape to one of the empty beds in the wing. She began to cast her own set of diagnostic charms and was upset but not surprised when Severus made no move to leave. He took a seat and watched closely as she frowned at her results.

“Severus, she’s been cursed with some awfully dark magic, care to tell me how it happened?” Poppy gritted her teeth, she knew she would either get a false answer or no answer at all but it was worth a shot.

“I can’t tell you what you need to know Poppy, I don’t know what she was hit with but I can tell you who did it… Bella got to her. “ He looked from Poppy to the nearly lifeless girl on the hospital bed. Then back to Poppy “And even if I knew how it happened we both know I couldn’t tell you.” They both frowned. Poppy nodded her head to the looming potions master and scurried away. He sat in the chair near the head of the bed and prayed to whatever god existed that the dark lord’s daughter didn’t die on his watch.

***************

It was nearly dawn when the headmaster entered the quiet chamber of the Hospital wing. He sighed tiredly as he approached the bed of the girl who had formerly completed the golden trio. Poppy had informed him of her impending death, there was very little she felt she could do to help the poor girl. He hoped that his visit and the energy or tears of his phoenix Fawkes would be enough to save her. He looked to the exhausted potions master who sat in a silent vigil for the girl and wondered why the man was so concerned for her. Severus stared blankly at the old man. 

“Severus.” The headmaster tilted his head in greeting. Snape could not bring himself to reply with more than a huff. Fawkes flew into the hospital wing and perched on the end of Hermione’s bed. He looked from his master to the sullen man sitting in the chair, and finally to the pale girl lying in the bed. He could feel her magic fighting something dark and feel it dwindling. Without a second thought, he extended some of his own energy to her, knowing that their combined strength would be enough to save her. As the darkness started to dissipate, he felt her magic strengthen. When he was confident she would be fine on her own, he flew away and left the hospital wing the same way he had come.

Hermione began to stir, she opened her eyes which were bloodshot, and looked around the room wildly. She calmed when she saw professor Snape but stilled with fright when she saw Dumbledore. She tried to speak but found her throat dry and her tongue heavy.

“Dr-dra-dra” She struggled to make her mouth listen to her brain. Snape tried to comfort her.

“Mr. Malfoy is in his dormitory, you are in the hospital wing as a result of a nasty curse. Madam Pomfrey will be around shortly to help you.” He made to leave but her eyes begged him not to. Dumbledore looked at the girl with eyes full of regret before he left the hospital wing.


	8. Scheming Men are Ruining Our Lives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dumbledore continues to scheme and Draco struggles with his new role as a death eater.

Dumbledore sat stewing in his office. He hadn’t been able to see into the Granger girl’s mind and it had him feeling off. The only Occlumens he knew to be capable of keeping him out were Severus Snape and Tom Riddle (back in the days when he had gone by that name). The most disconcerting part about her ability to block him out was that she had been in a coma, most likely not aware of his intrusion, and judging by Poppy’s observations, on the brink of death. She shouldn’t have been able to keep him from seeing what was going on…knowing that she could keep him out had him quite frightened. A brain like hers, working for the wrong side, with no one to keep her in check… this was a dangerous thing.

“Fawkes, go find Severus. I think it's time he and I had a chat.”

The old Phoenix was tired of being a part of his master’s games however, he knew that until he found someone whose magic was powerful enough to sustain him and whom he could trust more than the old man he currently served, he couldn’t leave. So wishing he could do anything else, he took off to find the potions master.

Fawkes was not surprised in the least when he found his target sitting in silent contemplation in the hospital wing. He perched at the top of the bed where Hermione lay waiting until he caught the eye of the sour-looking man. Snape’s thoughts were interrupted by the slamming of the infirmary door and the loud click of running on the old stone floors. Hermione tried her best to sit up in the hopes of seeing the commotion but didn’t quite have the strength to sit up on her own. Snape stood and rushed to the end of her bed, looking around the divider to see what the ruckus was about. Draco, who was paying very little attention to his surroundings nearly ran head-on into his godfather, saved only from the man’s wrath by a glance up and nearly falling on his face to stop in time.

“Please do refrain from breaking anything Mr. Malfoy. Although we are in the perfect place to fix your maladies, Madam Pomfrey has plenty of other, more important matters to tend to.” Snape bit out, lacking his usual acidity. 

“Since you are here to keep Ms. Zabini company, I will take my leave.” As he swept away in a billow of black robes Fawkes took off to return to his master’s office. There was no doubt in his mind that the spy had taken note of his presence. 

If there was one thing Severus Snape hated the most in all the world, it was Albus Dumbledore’s meddling. He could barely tolerate the man, but the finagling the old coot did to make things go the way he wanted them made him even more unbearable. He almost wished Draco hadn’t come to the hospital wing because it would have given him an excuse not to follow the unspoken command to meet the headmaster in his office. Days like today made him question his sanity in having ever allowed the man in question to have so much power in his life. He steeled himself and strengthened his mental walls, knowing the interrogation he was about to face would be neither easy nor short-lived.

When he arrived at the gargoyle guarding the headmaster’s office he didn’t give the password. He stood, glaring until the staircase was revealed to him and he slowly made his way up the stairs. Just because he had to be here, did not mean he had to make it easy. 

“Severus, Dear boy please have a seat!” The man was grinning like he had for sure gone raving mad. Although most days he wasn’t far off anyway.

“Albus, I’m not sure why you’ve brought me up here, if you had bothered to look in my head you’d have seen everything there was to see.” Dumbledore’s grin faded before widening.

“Dear boy, I don’t know why you try to show me fake memories anymore, you know I can see right through them.” He hoped his tone would hide his bluff, while he doubted what he had been shown was the full truth, he had no proof from what he’d seen.

“Well Albus, it seems you are going a bit mad. Everything you saw was true. I know full well you track me. I was here, at Hogwarts, all night. I haven’t the slightest noti-“ he was cut off abruptly.

“Don’t pull that nonsense with me, Severus, I’ve always been able to see through your lies. What is all this rubbish with the Granger-“

“Zabini.”

“Yes, yes, Zabini girl anyways. The whole of Slytherin house treats her as royalty, especially those whose parents are death eaters. The Malfoy boy keeps her within arm's reach at all times. And I can’t get into her head anymore!” When he realized he had let the last part slip, he sat down. “Tea, Severus?” Severus knew if he drank the tea, most of his memory of this conversation would disappear so he shook his head. He erected a full shield and sat down, following Dumbledore’s lead.

“Albus, I’ve told you all I know, you and I both know that the Dark Lord does not hold me in the regard he did before the second war. I’m not in as deep as I was before. He still doesn’t trust me, I’m doing the best that I can but, I’m only one man. And merlin knows I’m not in the position I was to gather information like I was last time.” The old headmaster seemed to ponder this idea. He sat for a moment before waving Severus off, not even bothering to formally dismiss him.

************************

When Hermione had made to sit up, the monitor spells Poppy had set up alerted her to the girl’s increased heart rate. She had seen the encounter between Mr. Malfoy and Professor Snape and assumed the increase was due to excitement but she came around to be sure. Seeing that the girl was alert and would probably be able to consider her options, she pulled up a chair to have a talk.

“Dear, we’re going to talk about what happened and how I can help you. Would you like Mr. Malfoy to leave?” Hermione grabbed Draco’s hand and shook her head vigorously.

“No. No, let him stay. I’d like him here actually.” The matron smiled sternly.

“Do you remember what happened last night dear?”

“Not precisely.” While she did, telling Madam Pomfrey didn’t seem like it was on the list of things she should do.

“Okay. Well, you came in with a pretty nasty curse, darn near almost killed you from the suck on your magic. For a while, I was sure we’d lose you. I would have sent you to St. Mungos but you weren’t in any state to be moved. Which is part of why I’m so shocked you’re up today. Speaking of which, how are you feeling today?”

“Pretty weak. My brain is running a little on the slow side. But, overall better than last night before I passed out. Speaking of which, my arm doesn’t hurt at all anymore.” She looked, half expecting to see her dark mark but, not surprised to see the faint shimmer of a glamour. She could tell the mediwitch could see it too but was thankful that she made no move to undo it. 

“Well, I’m glad to hear that you are feeling okay. I know this may be counter to your desires but, I would like to keep you here until Monday before classes.” Hermione started to argue but knew that nothing would change the old mediwitch’s mind since she had made it up. Poppy got up and returned to her office leaving the two Slytherins alone in their thoughts.

***************************

By Saturday afternoon, Hermione was chomping at the bit. Madam Pomfrey, in her well-meaning goodness, refused to let her out of her bed. This would have been fine if she had been allowed to do some of her work but the mediwitch wouldn’t allow that either. 

“You need your rest,” she’d argue every time Hermione tried to ask. Hermione had tried to beg and she’d tried to argue and she’d tried to use logic but none of it had any effect on the matron. If the girl hadn’t appreciated the work that the witch did, she would’ve hexed the older woman from pure frustration. The only thing that made her forced ‘vacation’ in the hospital wing slightly better was that it gave her an excuse not to return to the cold, darkness of her home. 

When Draco came to see her Saturday night, he looked haunted. His already pale skin was almost grey and the light in his eyes that Hermione was so used to seeing had dimmed. He staggered to the chair next to her bed drawing his wand to cast some privacy charms. 

“He’s got us killing people, love. Kids…they didn’t even understand what was happening. I knew stuff like this was coming but….what in the name of Merlin does this achieve? Why would-“

“It’s a muggle tactic, terror, it’s the most effective way to get the attention of wizarding Britain. Kill enough people in the same way, without discrimination, you show that you’re not playing by the rules of war and you’ll take everyone else down with you if you don’t win.” She paused. “Dray, I’m sorry you had to be part of that. I know I can’t imagine how you’re feeling but, I can start to guess at where your emotions are coming from. Just because you do something awful to keep your family safe, doesn’t mean you’re an awful person. “

“But, children…he had us torturing fucking children.” He looked to be on the verge of tears.

“He. That’s the key, you weren’t doing it for shits and giggles. You didn’t want to do it, you did what you were told because you know what happens if you don’t.” She scooted to the far side of her bed and patted the space beside her. Draco pulled himself out of his chair and slid into bed next to her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and she grabbed his hands, interlacing their fingers and hoping to drag him into la la land with her.


	9. Does the Wizarding World do Therapy?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco's having nightmares and Hermione is mad at the men who are running her life. Chaos ensues.

Hermione woke up to a screaming and writhing Draco Malfoy. She tried to wake him up but, it seemed that whatever nightmare he was having was too intense for him to be roused. She carefully slipped off of the bed and went to find Madam Pomfrey in her office. As was to be expected, the Mediwitch was asleep but a quick tap on the door had the matron on her feet and ready to go. When she opened the door to see Hermione out of bed, she was less than pleased, but the look on the girl’s face told her that now was not the time for a reprimand.

“It’s Draco, he’s having what I can only imagine is a horrific nightmare and I can’t- I can’t – he won’t,” She took a deep breath, “I can’t wake him up.” The matron looked at her critically. Hermione could hear her unspoken question of “What in the hell is Mr. Malfoy doing in my hospital wing in the wee hours of the morning?”

The matron walked quickly but did not run, it was likely there was nothing she could do for the boy until he woke up but, she wanted to at least assure Ms. Grang- Zabini that she was doing all she could. She ran a few diagnostic spells to be sure that the problem was no more serious than a nightmare, when nothing else showed up, she bid the girl goodnight and suggested Hermione sleep in the empty bed next to the one that her boyfriend currently occupied.

*****************

When Draco came to in the bright light of the mid-afternoon, his eyes were bloodshot and his muscles were screaming in protest to every movement. He looked around the room, at first only knowing he was no in the Slytherin dormitories before realizing he was in the hospital wing. As the events of the previous night returned to him, he realized that his fiancée was not in his arms, where she should have been.

“ Mione, love, where are you?” He whispered. A lack of response tempted him to yell. As he drew in the breath to holler for Hermione she came around the end of the divider with a pinched smile on her face. When she saw that he was awake, it became more authentic but her real smile only served as a brief interlude to the pinched, and obviously fake, smile she had rounded the corner with.

“Glad to see you’re awake.” She smiled genuinely. Again he watched her demeanor return to that of someone who was right pissed with someone else.

“Love, have I done something to offend you? You seem awfully upset about something.” He silently prayed to whatever was out there that it hadn’t been him who’d upset her.

“Nope. Not you. The meddling old coot and my father yes. But you, no you’re not guilty of anything right now.” Each sentence ended sharply, Hermione’s voice rising ever so slightly with each word. The low, slow, angry voice that told him she was about to explode.

“Love, I would ask what they’ve done but you look like you’ll burst. Do you want to talk about it?” She shook her head, her body so full of tension that her hair started to fizzle and the hospital wing got windy. Madam Pomfrey rushed around the divider to see what was causing havoc in her infirmary. Seeing the girl who was still supposed to be on bed rest floating half a foot above the ground and radiating energy was not at all what she had expected. All the glass in the infirmary broke at once, every small pane from the windows, the vase on the bedside table, even the vial holding the calming potion Poppy had in her front pocket. Poppy ducked for cover, hoping Mr. Malfoy would do the same. When she looked up from where she had jumped under the bed, Hermione was lying on the floor, still as a statue, minus the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest. 

After clearing the glass from the bed that the now still girl had spent the wee hours of the morning sleeping in, the mediwitch levitated the girl and tucked her in. She cast a monitor spell and went to check over Draco. Seeing that he was okay, she began to survey the damage. As she walked the room, looking for things that might have been damaged beyond repair, she heard the doors open and the click of two pairs of hurried feet. Looking up, she saw Severus rushing to check on his godson and Ms. Zabini, while Albus made his hurried way towards her.

“Poppy, I heard the crash from my office, what happened?”

“I’m not quite sure, there was wind blowing, I came ‘round the corner and Ms. Zabini blasted all the windows out. If I didn’t know better, I’d call it accidental magic but, when was the last time you saw that in an 19-year-old?” Albus stroked his beard, wishing he could get in her head to see what she was thinking, but of course only getting her walls.

That Severus had heard the crash was something of a mystery. Even when things happened in the great hall (which was closer to his office), with the door open, he seldom heard a thing. What was even more mysterious was that he had felt the surge of energy. While it wasn’t strange to feel some energy when things of this nature happened, as one of the people furthest from the scene of the incident, he shouldn’t have felt it to the magnitude he had. His contemplation was interrupted by a loud groan and Albus’s sharp intake of breath. It seemed that in her fit, Hermione had unintentionally removed the glamour over her very active, and very compromising tattoo. 

**********************

The girl sitting in the bed looked weak. She was sallow and the bags under her eyes resembled bruises. She had forced herself to sit up but, those around her could tell that she was about to fall over.

“Stay out of my head. You already know you can’t get in.” What should have been a biting remark came out raspy and lacked her usual spunk. “I’d probably be better off if I didn’t have to spend so much energy keeping you out.” She tried to smile but, her muscles weren’t quite working with her.

“Albus, the girl is on the brink of magical exhaustion, leave her alone!” Madam Pomfrey demanded. Albus smirked, maybe if he managed to exhaust her, he would be able to extract the information he needed. Severus could see the look in Albus’s eyes and knew exactly what he was thinking.

“You’ll more likely kill her than get what you want.” He bit out, quietly enough that only Albus would hear it. The old man’s eye twinkled mischievously and he walked away with an extra spring in his step. Poppy walked away to get some potions for the poor girl to take, leaving the trio to themselves.

Hermione snuggled up against Draco some more, a little chilled and more tired than she wanted to admit. Each time she blinked, her eyes took a little longer to come back open.

“Dray, the bastard won’t stay out of my head. I can feel him bumbling around like a fool trying to find something. He won’t find anything while my shields are up but, who knows how much longer I can keep them up. Dray, I know everything, if he gets in my head, everything is going down in ruins.” Her voice was still raspy. Severus had an idea, it was obvious Hermione wouldn’t be fit to attend her classes the next morning, and back at the manor, Dumbledore wouldn’t be able to get in her head so he followed after Poppy to ask her permission to take the girl home.

Despite the mediwitch’s uncertainty of sending the girl home in such a state, before 8 pm, Hermione was back in Zabini Manor, sleeping in her own bed. Without the constant toll of Dumbledore trampling around in her mind, she had started to regain some color, and the personal healer said that her magical core would be restored in short order. While they couldn’t be sure of when she would feel recovered, the part of the process outside magic could help with was over. 

  
  



	10. Heir Apparent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermione wakes up from her unconscious state and returns to school with a new mission.

When Hermione did wake up, on Wednesday morning, the whole house breathed a little deeper. While no one would describe Voldemort as a sentimental man, he had been more easily aggravated while his daughter slept. Everyone in the Manor was on edge, their lord was already easily displeased, and now, the slightest of infraction was punished severely.  
Waking up in the Manor was something of a shock to the curly-haired Slytherin. Having expected the infirmary and not having a firm recollection of the last time she had been awake, she was very confused by this turn of events. She called for Rainbow who popped timidly into existence next to the bed.  
“Rainbow be’s happy to see the young mistress is awake. What can rainbow be doing for yous?” Hermione smiled at the small elf.  
“Well, if you could bring me some breakfast, that would be great.” The elf nodded enthusiastically, resembling a bobblehead before popping to the kitchen, and popping back with toast, tea, and jam.   
“Not that I don’t appreciate this, Rainbow but do you think you could bring me something more filling?” The elf started to shake, on the verge of tears.  
“No young mistress, the mistress be saying you can only have toasts and teas until yous been being awake longer.” Hermione was confused, why wouldn’t Mary let her eat real food?  
“That’s okay Rainbow, you’re just following orders, I’m not angry, I promise. Do you know why she doesn’t want me to eat more than this right now?” The young witch’s voice was low and calming.  
“Rainbow would be guessing that young mistress can only have toasts because she was alseeps so long.”  
“How long rainbow?”  
“Wells, today bes Wednesdays and young mistress came home on Sunday night sos, the young mistress be sleeping 2 and a haff days.” Hermione pondered. Perhaps Dumbledore had fucked her up more than she had thought.  
“Thank you Rainbow, you’re dismissed.” While the toast didn’t look at all appealing, she was starving so she ate it. When she lifted her cup to drink it, the door to her room opened, nearly causing her to drop it. She was entirely too relieved to see that her mother had come through the door instead of any of the other cretins who were currently occupying her home.  
“So it’s true, you are awake.” Mary smiled warmly before taking a seat next to the bed. “What happened? Severus brought you over in quite a mess and Draco seemed absolutely terrified.” Somehow the witch’s concern sounded more like she was digging for gossip.  
“That damned bastard of a headmaster has been trying to get into my head since Lestrange cursed me but he can’t. He’s been making a mess of things in my mental shields, which normally wouldn’t be a problem except for the whole magical depletion from her curse and whatever the hell happened before that. Which to be honest I don’t remember anything except waking up and feeling like I’d been run over by a bus.” Hermione sounded rightfully frustrated; Her usual energy having returned to her by her rest.   
“From what I understand, you had a burst akin to accidental magic; Unless of course you intended to blow all the windows out of Hogwarts’ hospital wing. It probably took so much out of you because you so rarely let your powers run wild and you were already weak.” Hermione wanted to argue about being called weak but, she did have to concede she had been healing from a dark curse.   
“Well, I absolutely did not intentionally destroy the hospital wing. Is that why I’m here?” She panicked. “Have I been expelled then?” Her mother smiled at her shaking her head slowly.  
“No one would dare expel the princess of Slytherin house. Severus brought you here to keep Albus out of your mind while you healed. You were never going to regenerate your magic with him draining it via your shields.”  
“So when can I return? It's Wednesday, I’m missing classes as it is.” God, Mary thought, one-track mind as always.   
“I’ll let you go back for dinner tonight. You’ve just woken up and your father wants to see you before you go back.” Hermione shuddered at the thought of one-on-one with the dark lord. “Oh he’s really not all that bad, and even though he’s not the most affectionate person on the planet and he won’t admit it, he does have a soft spot for you.” Somehow, that didn’t make her feel any better. “Up now,” Mary gestured with her hands, “We’ve got work to do before you can be seen in public.”  
*****************  
After being thoroughly cleansed, plucked, and painted, Hermione was forced into a tight black dress that laced in the back and had a relatively full skirt. Her hair was pulled into a tight chignon and she was mercifully given flat, black dragonhide boots (as opposed to some of the more outlandish heels her mother had made her wear).  
Mary led her to the study that Voldemort has taken as his office before turning around abruptly, making it clear the Hermione should stay here. Before Mary was out of sight down the long hallway, the door to the study flew open and the slightly raspy voice of her father and master called her into the dark room.  
The office was neat to the point of perfection. It was obvious that everything had a place and everything returned to its place after it was used. The large leather-bound book in the middle of the desk was perfectly parallel to the edge of the desk, the quill that had just been used placed exactly in the center of the inkpot, laying exactly perpendicular to the edge of the book. It would seem that for as OCD as her father appeared to be he ought to be able to come up with a more organized way to take over the wizarding world.  
“Remember that I can hear your thoughts dear one.” His voice rang out in her head.  
“I hadn’t quite forgotten. It's just that the way we do things now is so messy. There has to be a better way.” She knew she was walking on a very thin line and had to be gentle with how she approached this but now was as good a time as ever.  
“While I appreciate that input and would be glad to discuss that with you at another time, I did have your darling mother bring you here for a reason. I have a mission for you young lady. A very important one at that.” He smiled before proceeding to detail what he needed her to accomplish, and how he thought she might best go about doing so.  
************  
When Hermione entered the great hall, everyone went silent. The Slytherin table bowed their heads in deference, the heir apparent, had returned and after the consequences of her incident, everyone would be ensuring that the rest of the world treated the witch with the proper level of respect. Her seat had been left empty, anticipating her return and in respect of her rank. When she sat primly in her seat, back ramrod straight ad chin held high, chatter at the Slytherin table resumed, although in a much more demure manner than before; one does not act a fool in the presence of royalty. Slowly the rest of the great hall resumed their meals and conversations however, two certain Gryffindors were busy plotting.  
As dinner ended, the eighth year Slytherins formed a wall around their Lord’s daughter. As they had anticipated, the-boy-who-just-wouldn’t-die and his favorite ginger menace approached the group, wands drawn and out for blood.  
“Oi, Granger! Wh-“ the ginger menace was cut off.  
“Zabini. One. Two more and I hex your ass to next Sunday.” She responded, already bored by the boys’ most current attempt to insult her. Ron took a breath to say something but lost his courage when Blaise got up in his face. Hermione huffed in amusement. “Not so brave when you’re outnumbered, huh? Obviously knowing you’re outmatched hasn’t convinced you to leave me alone. Does all of Slytherin? Because if not you two are even more stupid than I had given you credit for.” She crossed her arms and made to walk back to the common room.  
“I loved you, you know? I was going to ask you to marry me when we got done with school, and this is how you treat me?” Ron screech in a most unattractive manner. He drew his wand but before he could cast his curse, it had been silently spelled from his hand and Professor Snape had grabbed him by the back of the collar.   
“I believe Ms. Zabini has indicated to you that she doesn’t wish to speak to you, Mr. Weasley. Move along now. You too Mr. Potter.” His voice left no room for argument so the boys trudged off to sulk in their dormitory.


	11. I am Not a China Doll

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the hospital incident, the gang is giving Hermione a wide berth. She is fed up and demands a change.

After word of what Hermione had done in the infirmary had spread, most of the school had given her a wide berth, being very careful not to aggravate the Slytherin Princess. The Slytherins, while they did include her, treated her like glass. She hadn’t figured out if they were afraid of her or afraid of her father but, either way, it was starting to get on her nerves. Being constantly surrounded by people who acted lukewarm to her (at best) was a huge change from the almost familial atmosphere that had developed in the time since she had joined them. Hell, even Draco was gentler with her; no more love bites or play-fighting, he hardly even kissed her anymore. If they kept this up, she would be plotting the whole house’s murders before the end of the week.

Friday morning at breakfast, she decided she’d had enough, things were going to change immediately, or she was going to destroy people.

“Draco,” she purred, “why is everyone treating me like glass?”

“Well, it could be that your father threatened to break each bone in every one of our bodies if you got so much as a bruise because of our, how did he put it-“

“Irresponsibility around the Heir apparent of the empire.” Pansy piped in. Draco huffed. Hermione growled and gently placed her fork back on to her plate. She rose, the cool, collected lady of breeding everyone expected her to be and walked briskly out of the great hall. 

She’d made it halfway to the owlery before she decided that sending an angry letter to the man who planned to take over the world and put her in charge probably wasn’t a smart idea. So, she turned around, heading for the dungeons so she could draft the talk she would be giving the house after dinner.

********

After skipping most of her morning’s classes, Hermione had arrived at what she felt was quite a rousing speech. She asked Pansy to spread the word that after dinner, she expected everyone’s full attention for a house meeting. Feeling fully confident in her ability to regain the comradery of her housemates, she headed off to potions in the best mood she’d had in a week. 

Of course, this term, the Slytherins were sharing potions class, in what Hermione was sure was some cockamamie plan by her least favorite old coot to convince her to come back to the “right” side. With a steely gaze, she waited outside of the classroom. As more students started to congregate outside the door, she felt Draco’s strong arms wrap gently around her waist, his head sitting gently in the crook of her neck.

“Where were you all morning?”

“I was busy,” She whispered.

“Doing what?”

“I was writing. You’ll hear what about later.” 

The boy-who-just wouldn’t die rounded the corner, along with his red-headed buffoon. Ginny trailed behind, looking less than amused. Harry looked particularly bold as he approached Hermione.

“This is going to be great,” She almost giggled. She was looking forward to hitting someone. At least this way she could work out some of her frustration. Some of the Slytherin boys moved in, to form a protective barrier, which she noticed mostly because of the sudden lack of Draco’s arms around her waist. Before she had really registered what was happening, He had moved in front of her, blocking her line of vision, and practically puffing up. She saw a flash of red, as Ginny joined the ranks, coming to stand next to her and gently placing her hand over Hermione’s, presumably to keep her from drawing her wand.

“What are the arseholes up to today?” She asked as Ginny grabbed her arm slightly tighter.

“They may have seen my new tattoo, and may not be so thrilled about it.” Ginny huffed. Obviously having already had a rough day.

“How the hell did that happen?” 

“Long story, I’ll have to tell you later.” Hermione turned to look at her friend and noticed that her hair was pulled down over the side of her face, rather than pulled back like normal.

“What the hell did they do to you?” Her voice raised and she felt her hair start to frizzle.

“Not now, ‘mione. We can talk about it later. You need to stay calm, or else we’re all going to be in a lot of trouble.”

Harry chose this moment to speak.

“What the hell have you done to her ‘mione? You’d really stoop so low as to imperious someone who was your friend for so long?” Ronald chose to butt in.

“Really, ‘mione? My sister? How could you?” His face was just as red as his hair.

“What have I done to her?” Hermione was furious. “What have you done to her? Spent her whole life making her feel inferior, ignored the danger to put her in, failed to rescue her when you thought she was in danger… and you’re blaming me for her coming to her senses and realizing who her real friends are? That’s thick even coming from you Ronald Weasely.” She sighed deeply. “And Harry, I can’t tell if you’re more upset that she defected from your absurd movement, or that she doesn’t moon over you anymore. At least if you accused me of interfering in your love life I might be able to take you seriously.”

Harry sputtered and turned almost as red as Ron. Then, the door to the potions classroom opened and a stream of third years came out, being very careful to keep their eyes directly in front of them rather than on the scene occurring on both sides of the corridor. The Slytherin contingent swiftly entered the classroom, and Ginny dragged Hermione to the very front of the classroom, where the constant watch of their diligent potions master would ward off any further annoyance from the wild Gryffindor boys. 

Hermione was still pent up as she aggressively chopped potion ingredients. Every once in a while she would turn her head to see the two boys in the corner, who remained as red as when she had seen them in the hall and were talking angrily to one another. She got a little too aggressive with the knife, and too distracted trying to get into the boys' brains, and cut her finger.

“Shit!”

“Ms. Zabini, language!” Snape spat out, trying to cover his concern.

“Sorry professor, I missed my ingredients and caught my finger.” She waved her hand over her finger to heal her cut. “I’m fine now.”

“Perhaps, If you paid more attention to your work, and less attention to your classmates, you would be more precise in your technique.” He quipped. Hermione didn’t answer but resolved to pay more attention to her work. She finished cutting her ingredients and added them to her cauldron. Taking advantage of her downtime she sat down and started to speak quietly to Ginny.

“What on earth did they do to you, and why didn’t you heal the bruise they’ve left on your face?”

“You have to promise not to get angry. You know we’ll deal with it but I’m not going to tell you if you’re going to do the freaky hair thing.” Ginny looked more scared of her reaction than she looked upset about what had happened.

“Fine. I will do my best not to get upset. I just get angry when people think they can screw with my friends.” Hermione crossed her arms, not impressed in the least.

“When I was going back to my room during my free period, the buffoons ambushed me. Them and a couple of the other boys from the nonsense club. They actually had the audacity to grab me, almost like they forgot they were wizards. I obviously wasn’t having it, so some punches got thrown. Someone threw a petrificus my way, then they nullified my glamour, and the rest, as they say, is history.”

“And you didn’t wipe their memories because?” Hermione asked incredulously.

“By the time it wore off, they were long gone. I didn’t even see everyone involved. And at this point, I’m sure the old coot already knows.” Ginny sounded frustrated. “I can’t go back to the tower, Hermione, I don’t trust a single one of those lions.” She sounded a little scared. 

“You won’t go back there. Absolutely not. Rules allowing or not, you will be joining us in the Slytherin dorms. Care to explain why you left the bruising?”

“So I can go whinge to McGonagall and maybe lose Gryffindor some house points,” Ginny smirked. “Of course, they may also help with the move… I can clearly claim that I don’t feel safe in my current living situation.”

The timers for their potions went off and the two girls went back to work.

****************

Once everyone had filtered down back to the Slytherin common room, Hermione began to hold court. All the soft black sofas had been moved into rows, to create more of an audience. The students had seated themselves by rank, with older students sitting in the front, and younger, less affiliated students to the rear.

“You’re all probably wondering why I’ve gathered you here tonight.” Hermione started her speech. “I’m aware that some of you received explicit instructions to ensure that no harm comes to me. That’s all fine and dandy, but I’m fairly certain that nowhere in those instructions was you told to stop interacting with me or to treat me like a china doll. I’m over it. You can fight all my fights for me, keep Dumbledore far away from me, and make sure that Tweedledee and Tweedledum don’t poison my food for “stealing” their sister-slash-girlfriend. But, if you keep keeping me at arm's length, I may very well explode. Any questions?” She gave everyone a pointed look.

When no one dared to ask any questions, Hermione walked away from the gathering and got to work helping Ginny settle into the extra bed in the room that had been set aside for the eighth year girls. They laughed and joked together, and Hermione finally started to feel like she belonged again.


	12. Choking on Your Alibis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermione has a new plan to end the war before it gets bad again. Can she really trick Dumbledore?

AN: Smut warning ahead. This is a very plot-heavy chapter with some smut thrown in to keep it interesting. If you want to skip the lemony goodness, I will put a label before and after so you know what to skip.

“Ginny. I need you to do me a huge favor. You’re not going to like it, but this may be the way to avoid a war and have a relatively peaceful transition of power.” Hermione waited patiently for Ginny's response.

“I have a feeling I know what you’re about to ask me. I’ll do it, but you’re right, I am not going to be happy about it.” Ginny pouted.

“If we play this right, in less than a month, you’ll never have to pretend to be on their side ever again. But, we really need to know what their game plan is, and how much they know. Otherwise, my father is going to just keep up with the terror tactics.”

“Hermione, does he know you’re doing this?” Ginny was suddenly much less eager to participate in the plan… The last thing she wanted to do was commit treason.

“Yes, He promised no more terror for two months so I could try my plan. This is our shot to finish this once and for all but you really have to sell it. As far as your family knows, you were brainwashed and may have been under the influence of illegal curses. Now you have to convince them you’ve come to your senses and want to come home. Do you think your mental shields are strong enough to stand up to Dumbledore?”

“Of course they are. It’s all we’ve worked on for months ‘mione.”

“Okay then. In a few minutes, you’re going to talk to him and tell him how awful we are and how you want to come home to where you belong. Tell him all the “secrets” of how we work, really convince him you’ve come home.” Hermione hugged her friend and handed her the coin she would use to set up meetings. “You can do this!”

*******

Ginny stood outside the steps to Dumbledore’s office, waiting to hear his footsteps approach. She had worked herself into a state, being sure to cry until she was a puffy, snotty mess. She had brought her trunk with her and was perched atop it to drive home the point that she had separated herself from the Slytherins. Dumbledore walked down the corridor and noticed the youngest Weasley sitting near the entrance to his office. He heard her sniffling and felt a glimmer of hope that she might be coming back to the right side of the fight.

“Ms. Weasley, what seems to be the matter?” He asked with as much sympathy as he could force into his voice.

“What did they do to me, professor? I’ve got this awful mark on my arm.” She stuck her dark mark in his face to punctuate. “How could I behave this way toward my own family? How can they ever forgive me?” She ended her question with a convincing wail and started to cry again. 

While Dumbledore hadn’t seen the youngest Weasley’s dark mark, he had heard from Minerva that she had one. He couldn’t help but hope that she had truly come to her senses and that he could use her as a new source of information since his previously reliable source had all but dried up. Curious as to how she had ended up on his stoop instead of in the dungeons, he decided to invite her into his office for a cup of tea.

“My dear girl, I’m sure that all can be forgiven in time. After all, you weren’t in your right mind! Why don’t you come up and we can talk about everything that happened so I can help you explain to your family and friends.” He smiled warmly and offered her his hand. The gargoyles moved aside and allowed the two to go up the stairs. Dumbledore snapped and a house-elf quickly came along to take Ginny’s trunk back to the Gryffindor tower, where it belonged. 

“So tell me, my dear, how did you end up here, in my office?” Dumbledore asked as he handed her a cup of tea. Snape had warned her not to actually drink it and had taught her a non-verbal spell she could use to make it look like she was. 

“I’m not exactly sure, sir. I just came to, about half an hour ago. I realized I was in the Slytherin common room, surrounded by snakes,” She spat the word with as much venom as she could manage. “And then when I saw this hideous thing on my arm, I freaked out. I ran to the room to gather my things and ran out of there as quickly as I could. Hermione was yelling at me...Something about being a blood traitor… Oh, professor, what have they done to her?” She started with the waterworks again. “I just don’t understand. She is such a wonderful person, or at least she was. How could the leader of the fight for all that is right end up in the ranks of the death eaters? I just don’t understand!” She started to shake and took a ‘sip’ of her tea.

“Calm down, my dear,” Dumbledore tried to soothe her. “Once we understand how you fell into this insanity, we may be able to save her too.” He paused. “Would you mind if I looked into your mind to try and find any information that might help us? Even if you don’t remember, there may be things in your subconscious memory that could help.” Ginny nodded enthusiastically. They had planned for this. Together, she and Hermione had built a whole fake subconscious into her brain and hidden her true thoughts and memories so deep inside of it that even the likes of Dumbledore wouldn’t be able to crack it. They had planted memories of both Ginny and Hermione being tortured and Imperioused to maintain their compliance, along with false memories of being present at death eater meetings where they had made plans that were not the least bit real. Ginny was confident she would be able to fool him.

“Anything to help, professor! I just want to save my best friend! If you really think this can help her, we can even do it right now.” Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled in joy. It appeared that the Weasley girl really did want to come home. He looked into her mind and saw the memories that had been planted. Something felt off about them but, he chalked that up to her repeated imperious-ing and the torture she had undergone. 

He reveled in seeing the Bellatrix Lestrange, one of Voldemort’s most ardent followers, had been killed at the hands of the dark lord himself. If Tom was killing loyal servants now, maybe all the order had to do was wait it out. Between that and meetings where the man raved like a lunatic about blood purity, half-bloods, and plots that would be a better fit for a muggle movie than a real-life power grab, Dumbledore reckoned it was only a matter of time before the death eaters started running to the side of the light.

******************

The whole school worked very hard not to stare when Ginny Weasley sat down at the Gryffindor table at dinner that night. She very meekly took a seat next to her brother, a seat that had been left open since she had left before Christmas break. He hugged her tightly from his seat, having been given a briefing by his head of house and the headmaster. Across the great hall, Hermione and the rest of the Slytherins put on their best death glares, making sure to really sell the idea that their captive had escaped from their clutches.

A perfectly timed owl arrived and dropped a letter for Hermione. It contained a strongly worded letter from her ‘father’ berating her for letting their captive escape, and with her such valuable information. Hermione put on a sour face, and let her mental shields drop enough for Dumbledore to get a glimpse of the letter. If he hadn’t been so distracted by his feeling of victory, he might have been suspicious of getting through- he had been unable to do this while she was in a coma- but, his elation at having one-upped Tom Riddle had him too distracted to see that he was being pulled into a spider’s web.

When dinner came to an end, the whole Slytherin table sat silently, waiting for Draco and Hermione to lead them out of the great hall and back to the dungeons. In a carefully orchestrated routine, they rose in unison and marched out, truly resembling the army they were believed to be. In the dungeons, Hermione gave a rousing speech to the other eighth year Slytherins, implanting a true memory for the next ‘defector’. For 15 minutes, she rattled on, spewing the same nonsense that played on repeat in Ginny’s memories. She made sure to mention the ‘dark lord’s’ displeasure with Ginny’s escape, and how any bit of disloyalty would be swiftly and severely punished.

******** LEMONS ABOUND***********

Hermione needed a break. All this lying and plotting was exhausting and stressful as hell. She and Draco had snuck off to the room of requirement to talk about life and just have some downtime. What had started as a discussion of how stressed she was had turned into a make-out session. And now, Hermione was pressed up against a wall feeling exactly how badly Draco wanted her. Between his lips on her neck and the way he was rubbing against her, Hermione was pretty sure she was going to explode.

“Fuck me, Draco.” She panted out. He stilled, and then returned to his attack of her neck with renewed enthusiasm. He began to unbutton her shirt, his lips following, kissing each bit of exposed skin as appeared. Hermione was already dripping wet and wanted nothing more than to be filled. She was nearly ready to scream in frustration when she felt cool air and then his fingers jamming into her. She moaned loudly. “Fuck. Me. Draco.” She reached for his belt to speed up the process of getting his cock into her. She unbuckled his belt, and opened his pants, grabbing him with one hand and pulling his head from her chest with the other. 

Pulling his head toward hers, she began to kiss him passionately. She felt his fingers leave her and whined at the loss. He hiked her leg over his hip and thrust into her, filling her completely. Her head fell back against the wall as he picked up a brutal pace. His other hand flew to her clit, rubbing in tandem with his thrusts. She could feel herself coming to the edge of ecstasy, and then she tumbled over. She was flying high.

When Draco came, he bit into the juncture of her neck hard enough that he drew blood. The sensation made her flutter. He tucked himself back into his pants, and the two of them sat quietly on the couch in the room of requirement snuggled together in post-coital bliss and thinking about their future. This was exactly the kind of break she had needed.

***********LEMON is OVER********

After two weeks of Ginny’s ‘defection’, the second phase of the plan began. With the information Ginny had gathered, the death eaters felt ready to kill Dumbledore, take over the ministry of magic, and bring an end to the nonsense. With memories from the order meetings Ginny had sat in on, Hermione felt sure that she would be able to convince the wizarding public of Dumbledore’s corruption, and of Voldemort's more appropriate vision for the Wizarding world. But first, they had to get more spies into the order.

Who better to start the feigned abandonment of their beliefs than Draco Malfoy? The pompous, pureblood, brat who had spent his entire life spewing vitriol towards the Order of the Phoenix, and espousing the beliefs of Voldemort’s new world order. It all started with a paper airplane. Scrawled on a small piece of paper was a short, messy, note “ _ I want out but I don’t know how. -DM”  _ As soon as it had reached Dumbledore and he had read it, it burst into flames.

When Draco was called out of class the next morning, everyone played their part to perfection. Each Slytherin student went completely silent, following the Blonde boy down the row of desks as he walked with thinly held composure. Those who didn’t know him well would believe he was scared, his pale skin was even paler than normal, and he walked with a slight tremble. The prefect who escorted him to Dumbledore’s office, a Gryffindor, gave him a nasty stare and a wide berth, still very wary of the death eater. 

Draco had never particularly enjoyed visits to Dumbledore’s office. Something about the excessive amounts of candy, the never-ending noise of the million gadgets on the shelves, and the awful headache that as a younger child he had chalked up to the sweets but was now smart enough to know was the result of intrusion into his mind had all added up to an incredibly unpleasant experience. This visit would be like no other in his long past with the devious headmaster. 


	13. I've Got a Feeling Something Bad's About to Happen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco's in on the plan and Hermione's losing her mind. What could possibly go wrong?

AN: Please feel free to leave constructive criticism, or even just a hello! I’d love to hear what you like (or don’t) about this story.

After nearly three hours in Dumbledore’s office, Draco was starting to question the brilliance of his fiance. He had known when he agreed to this that it was going to suck but, he hadn’t quite registered exactly how badly. The old coot was rifling through the carefully constructed ‘mind’ that had been created to carry out the ruse and even though it wasn’t really his subconscious mind, it still hurt like hell. Adding to his growing headache was the increasingly stale banter that Dumbledore was using as a preface to keep going through Draco’s ‘memories’. At the moment, Draco was struggling to see how sitting in this room with this crazy old man was getting the cause any further along. 

For the love of his fiance, and having come too far to endorse out now, he re-steeled himself to sit in this damned chair for as long as it took to sell his story. He decided to be a bit more upfront about it than he had been instructed to be.

“Professor, I’m sorry to interrupt, but maybe if you told me what you’re looking for in my mind, I might be able to help you? I don’t mean to rush you, but I’m getting an awful headache, and I would like to get you what you need in the most direct way possible.” The old man’s eyes twinkled in his usual, devious way.

“Draco, my dear boy, I just needed to look around, and make sure you were truly sincere about your desire to change. While I’m certainly satisfied with that, I would like a chance to look more closely at some of your memories, if you wouldn’t mind.” Draco smiled tightly. 

“Of course not headmaster! I could even pull them out for you, if you have a Pensieve, so you could review them later, and I could get some rest. It’s been a trying day, as I’m sure you can imagine. Speaking of which, where will I sleep? If my former friends haven’t already figured out what’s going on, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time. Then it won’t be safe for me in the dungeons anymore.” Draco shuddered. Dumbledore paused for a moment. He hadn’t actually considered what to do with the boy. Then a brilliant idea came to him. He could pawn the boy off on Severus. He could use the so-called bat of the dungeons to make sure that the boy’s repentance was full and continued while he continued to mine the boy’s memories for information he could use to take down Tom Riddle.

“There is plenty of space in your godfather’s living quarters, and I can’t think of a safer place for you to stay than under his supervision.” Dumbledore smiled, almost convincingly. “Of course, you’ll have to manage on your own during the day, just because you’ve seen the light doesn’t mean you don’t still need an education. We’re finished for today, but I’ll need to see you again tomorrow after dinner, so I can gather more information. Be careful, my dear boy; you’re the key to our future.” With that, Dumbledore left his desk and disappeared into the depths of his office leaving an exhausted Draco sitting in his seat. What had he gotten himself into this time?

***********

Hermione was in a foul mood. Because of her damned plotting, she hadn’t seen Draco in more than a passing glance in over a week. She was insanely worried about him and Ginny, stressed to high hell, and she had no one to talk to about it. Her best friend and her fiance were off on her mission, which left her with no one. Sometimes being the heir apparent sucked.

This whole thing made her realize that she really needed to expand her circle of friends. Maybe Pansy wasn’t divulge-deep-secrets worthy, but at least she could include her in some girl talk and have someone to talk to about something. It didn’t help that most everyone had given her a wider than usual berth after the second ‘defection’, what had started as minor confusion for the initiated Slytherins who weren’t in on the plan had turned into major concern when Draco had, in their minds, left the fold. 

Her growing frustration wasn’t helping in the slightest, no one could seem to forget about her accidental destruction of the hospital wing. Honestly, as she became more and more tightly wound, she could understand their concern… If something went wrong, she could see herself doing it again. She really wanted to punch someone, or at least hex them into next week. She wanted to be able to talk it out and to work out her frustration but that wasn’t an option.

**If you keep frowning like that, your face is going to get stuck like that.** Her brother’s voice popped into her head.

**Not in the mood Blaise** . She thought back.

**Someone’s feeling moody. Remind me to never let Draco leave again.**

**Blaise. Stop.** She could feel herself starting to lose control. If she wasn’t careful, she was going to blow out more windows. She wondered if maybe killing Dumbledore would be an effective way to end the war. At least that would mean she could be done with this damn plan. Maybe her father was right, terror tactics were the way to go. 

After spending more time than was acceptable plotting different ways she could kill the old coot, Hermione felt her arm start to burn. She looked down and noticed her dark mark was moving. Of course, her father would call a meeting while she was in this kind of mood. She did not have the energy to deal with the so-called adults in her life tonight but, as with most of her life, she had no other choice. 

*****************

The group of students who entered Zabini manor seemed awfully small, even though only two members were missing. Hermione was incredibly confused. Normally when they were called to the manor it was to be part of her father’s terrorist actions, and she was under the impression that they had made a deal to halt such actions for the time being. What on earth were they doing here?

“My dear children,” Voldemort’s gravelly voice carried out of the dining room, “thank you for joining us.” He sounded frustrated. As the group rounded the corner, she noticed that even the most committed adults looked scared. “I’m sure you’re wondering why I’ve called you here. Please, take your seats, and I will explain.” The children scurried to find seats, keeping their eyes down, and trying to avoid any unnecessary noise. In their seats, they all studied the pattern of the table. 

“It has come to my attention that some of you may be questioning your commitment to this cause. Apparently, seeing such devoted followers leave the fold has caused some others to question your loyalty. If you don’t want to help us make the wizarding world better, we don’t need you here. Please feel free to inform me if you no longer wish to participate in our mission.” No one moved a muscle.

“I would like to remind you that I can see your deepest thoughts. Speak up now, or face the consequences.” Still, no one moved. Suddenly, a girl Hermione didn’t know well, likely from the year below her, flew out of her chair, running for the door. Hermione groaned internally; there was no way this was going to end well.


	14. This ain't a Scene, it's an Arms Race

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The after-effects of a planned defection lead to a discussion of the future of Hermione's plan to take down Dumbledore. She follows through and starts the final phase of her plan.

If Hermione never had to see someone tortured again, it would be too soon. She had just barely kept the contents of her stomach while watching and was eternally grateful that she had not been asked to help. Sometimes, being Voldemort’s daughter had perks... Maybe she didn’t have so many friends but, she was seen as too important to use her energy on torturing defectors. On the one hand, she felt very bad for the girl, who had likely become a death eater because of her family’s affiliation with the dark lord. On the other hand, the girl had seen how the man treated even his most loyal followers and must have known that it was too late to really escape from “the family”. She laughed to herself… she really was in the wizarding mafia. 

Hermione flinched when she felt her father’s eyes settle on her. She did not want to have to talk things through with him right now; she wasn’t in the right frame of mind to keep her thoughts to herself and maintain the level of respect that he expected. She knew that being his daughter was not going to protect her from his wrath if she crossed a line. Steeling herself for what she expected to be a less than pleasant conversation, Hermione followed him as he left the dungeons. At least she wouldn’t have to hear any more screaming tonight.

When they entered his office he sat behind his desk, looking no less imposing seated than he did standing. She stood across from him, waiting to be told what to do. One did not simply sit down in the presence of the dark lord. She examined his face, trying to assess his mood. Though unable to read him, she noticed his face looked a bit more human than the last time she had really looked at him. Though he was still incredibly pale, his nose looked much less snake-like, he was starting to grow eyebrows. She stored that as a question to explore at a later date.

“Please, my dear, sit down.” His voice was smooth and calm. Almost too calm. She sat quickly, ramrod straight, legs crossed at the knee; every bit the heiress she was expected to be. She felt him in her brain, he was obviously looking for something. She relaxed her mental shields, there was no point in trying to hide things from him, all it would lead to was a massive headache and an angry Voldemort. No thank you! He retreated, seeming to have found what he was looking for, and the faintest of smiles came to his mouth. “I know you find my methods distasteful. I’m not going to apologize. However, I am sorry that you find them distressing.” He paused.

This felt like a test, she was pretty sure he was about to start monologuing and would probably be pissed if she started talking. On the other hand, if he wanted a response and didn’t get one that probably wouldn’t be great either. Before she had time to make a decision, he started talking again.

“I also understand that Draco and the Weasley girl have been making progress in their new roles. I’m quite impressed, as I had expected this plan to be a complete failure. It sounds like some of our dear, blood traitor, brethren are not as solidly aligned with their demented headmaster as it had previously appeared. I want a list of those witches and wizards. Perhaps with some gentle convincing, they could become valuable assets.” He paused, and then, as if had read her mind added, “No need to worry, I’m not going to torture them. Manipulate, obliviate, maybe implant some memories but no torture.” She nodded. Of course, she would prefer people come to their side willingly, but there was time for explaining their worldview after Albus Dumbledore was dead. 

“I also want to ensure that you’re ready for the next phase of this plan. You’re going to have to put on quite a show, my dear. Are you prepared to put on your old skin, and play the part of a blood traitor? Ready to do what it takes, even the torture you find so distasteful, to take down the so-called light? More importantly, are you going to feel responsible for the consequences of your apparent defection? I know you hadn’t expected the shaken faith that Draco’s defection caused. If he caused that, can you now imagine how some of our counterparts may react to the news that the Dark Lord’s own daughter has defected?” 

“If your inner circle aren’t smart enough-” Hermione paused for emphasis, “-to connect the drop in terror, your increased planning for what the new world order is going to look like, and our defection, they’re complete idiots and need to be demoted. If all it takes for your older followers to consider defection is a couple of  _ rebellious _ teenagers, they shouldn’t be here anyway. Will I feel guilty if another student starts making stupid decisions, probably, but is it worth it to put an end to this nonsense once and for all? Absolutely.” She couldn’t help but be a little pleased with the way he was looking at her. He actually looked proud of her, which was a first. 

“As long as you can handle the repercussions, you may continue as previously planned. Once I have your list, give me 2 weeks to rearrange the power balance, and then you can go in for the kill. You are dismissed. Gather your schoolmates, and then return to Hogwarts.” He waved to the door, indicating that he wanted her to leave immediately. She was more than glad to leave his burning presence, although not entirely keen on returning to the dungeons and the activities that would be in progress in them.

************

Back at Hogwarts, all Hermione wanted to do was go to bed. Unfortunately, she had a lot of work to do. First, she needed to take some polyjuice, Ginny would be under too much supervision to meet as herself. A hair she had swiped from a random Gryffindor student, and had carefully inspected to ensure that it was not a cat hair, would work perfectly for this adventure. 

She took a drink, groaning as her body transformed into that of the younger student. Quickly changing into a Gryffindor uniform, and transfiguring them to fit her smaller than normal body, Hermione set off towards Gryffindor tower. She snuck through the corridors, mindful of the fact that it was long past curfew, and whispered the password to the portrait guarding the tower. Ginny was waiting for her on the couch, since it was half-past 12, the common room was empty. She cast a silencing spell anyways, there was no room for listening ears in their conversation. 

Hermione told Ginny what had happened at the meeting, and that she needed a list of the people and families who might be swayed to join their side. Then, it was time for girl talk because she did not plan to waste the opportunity to gab with her best friend. Being on a mission for a not-so-secret society didn’t change the fact that she was a real person who needed real friends and the opportunity to connect with other people. 

They talked for nearly an hour going back and forth between list-making and girl talk, and were startled back to reality when they heard the door to the common room open. Looking at the clock, Hermione realized how late it was, and that she needed to leave before her polyjuiced figure reverted back to normal. She gave Ginny a big hug, and pulled the hood of her robe up, before heading back into the corridors and sneaking back to the Slytherin common room. 

In her own room, Hermione quickly wrote down the list she and Ginny had made. She called one of the house-elves from Zabini manor, grateful for the loophole on the non-apparition wards. She gave the list to the elf with explicit instructions it only be given to the Dark Lord himself. With her mission complete, Hermione was ecstatic that she could finally get some sleep. Getting up for classes tomorrow was going to suck, but at least she was making progress. 

Completely exhausted, Hermione changed into a nightgown and laid down for bed. She contemplated the situation she found herself in, oh how things had changed in a year. After staring at her canopy for entirely too long, she fell into a restless, nightmare-filled sleep. 

**********

2 weeks later, Severus Snape  _ accidentally  _ bumped into her in the hallway. When he extended his hand to help her up, he slipped a paper into her hand. She didn’t have to look at the note to know what it said. She now had the green light to move into the final phase of her plan to bring down the “light”. She used wandless magic to incinerate the note, it wouldn’t do to have others finding this. 

She went about her day as normal although she had nearly no focus on her classes. Instead, she invested her energy in making sure all of her mental shields were exactly what she would need as she went into the lion’s den. Pulling together her artificial conscious and subconscious mind, in which she hid her true thoughts and feelings, Hermione left her final class of the day and headed to the Slytherin common room so she could pack the last of her belongings and take them with her when she went to Dumbledore’s office. She really needed to sell her disgust at having lived among the snakes that she had come to call friends.

At dinner, the teachers, sitting at the head table all noticed a peculiar absence at the Slytherin table. While it wasn’t unheard of for all of the Slytherin students to miss a meal, they hadn’t seen a meal where only Hermione was missing. The heiress’s seat was left empty, as was Draco’s. It seemed that the stubborn students had not truly accepted that the Malfoy heir had left and wasn’t coming back. 

15 minutes into the meal, when she still hadn’t shown up, the Slytherin table had descended into quiet whispers and confusion. Hermione hadn’t told anyone she wasn’t coming to dinner, and no one could figure out where she was. They had seen her in the common room after classes, and she had been acting completely normal. As time stretched on, they became more concerned… Had somebody kidnapped or hurt their leader? Would they all be held accountable for her disappearance and their failure to protect her?

With dread and fear in their hearts, the Slytherins left the great hall at the end of dinner. They weren’t sure what was going on but they had a feeling it wouldn’t be good for them. Arriving back to the Slytherin common room, they found a note on the main study table, in her neat handwriting, it simply said:  _ I can’t do this anymore. -HZ _

Nervous chatter broke out in the older Slytherins. Had she pulled a Malfoy and defected? Were she, Malfoy, and Weaselette up to something? If she had really left, how would the Dark Lord react? If she hadn’t, how were they supposed to treat her? With way too many questions and absolutely no answers, they broke into their usual groups. Some did homework but many simply stewed in their confusion, searching desperately for answers.


End file.
